Carbureter.



I'. JOHNSTON & `0. E. KELLUM.

GARBURETER.

APPLICATION FILED DEO. 9, 1912.

Patented June 24, 1918.

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UNITED sTATEs PATENT oEEroE.

FRED JOHNSTON; 0Fy LOS ANGELES, AND ORLANDO E. KELLM, 0F vLONG'BEACH,

CALIFORNIA.

CARBURETER.

Application filed December 9, 1912. Serial No. 735,832.

To all wkomz't may concern:

Be it known that we, .FRED JOHNSTON` heated so that it may more readilyvaporize, thus providing lfor the use of heavier.

liquid fuel than isordinarily-the case and providing for efficient andquick starting when the liquid fuel is cold. v

Heretofore great diificulty perienced in the use of petroleumdistillates heavier than gasolene; largely because' of difficulty inobtaining free -vaponization of the liquid. We propose to suitably heatthe liquid fuel to a temperature depending upon the temperature at whichfreev vaporlzatlon takes place, so that a'suiiicient amountvof vapor isobtained to form anjexplosivemixture with the air passing through thecarbureter. Preferably, the .heating arrangement is controlled by athermostat which will maintain the temperature at an even degree; but insome aspects our invention will consist in the combination of an elecvtricalheating device with a carbureter as will be hereinafter Set forth.

We have shown in the accompanying drawing the preferred form or forms ofour device, typifying thereby' other equivalent arrangements which maybe used without depart-ing from the scope of our invention.

`In these drawings Figure 1 is a vertical' section of our completeimproved carbureter. Fig. 2 is a diagrammatic view illustrating amodified form of .thermostatic arrangement. j

In the drawings 10 designates the bodyv of a'carbureter containing theli uid fuel chamber. This liquid fuel cham er may -be of any desiredsize and configuration, suitable lfor the apparat-us lto which it isdesigned to feed explosive mixture. Above the body l0 there is 'fittedthe cap piece 11 with outlet 12, t5 which 'outlet theL manifold orintalrc pipe offthe engine will connect;

has been .ex-

The air 'inlet 13 to the liquid fuel chamber is preferably controlled bya suitable valve 14 opening inwardly and o posed in its movement by aspring 15 w ose pressure may be adjustedvby means of nut 16. Thisconstruction is of the ordinary and usual design; and may be varied tosultindividual requlrements. In fact, we have shown in our carbureter ameans for merely passing air through the liquid fuel chamber; but anyotherA common and well known means of passing the air through or overthe liquid surface'or around a nozzle throuofh which the liquid sprays,may behad. lentrally located within the fuel chamber we have placed athermostat chamber 17. This thermostat chamber is covered by a portionof cap piecell and 'is arranged to contain the thermostatic mechanism18, somewhat as illustrated. The thermostatic mechanism may consist of adiierentially expanding metallic ring-19 whose ends 20 and 2l carrytween the contacts may be varied. A suitable spring 25 is provided and apressure'screw 26 adjustably fixed on the end of the'spring is pressedagainst the end' 20 of the thermoslat spring, to press the end 2O towardthe end 21 and to press the contacts 22 and 23 into electricalengagement. The pres- 'sule of the spring 25 on thethermo-stat may beadjusted adjustment of screw 26; and the gap between the two contacts 22and 23vmay also be adjusted; and, in this manner, the temperature atwhich the thermo-- stat acts to close or open the Contact switch may beadjusted to anicety. Normally, when the earbureter is cold, thethermostat wlll be contracted vand the contacts 22 and 23 i'n engagementwith each other. They will,-

remain ineng'agement with each other'uutil the thermostat sufficientlyexpands 'to ear'ry them apart.- This will break the electrical circuit;and the arrangement is so-made Immediately below the liquid fuelchamberfthere is arranged the easing 30 which contains theheat-ingelement Vor elements 31.

' with the air These heating elements are preferably arranged flatly andas close as possible to the heatconducting sheet 32 (preferably copper)which separates the liquid fuel ch'amber from the chamber in Vcas-ing 30in which the heating elements are contained. The heating elements may belaid in asbestos cement or other heat insulating material, and beseparated by mica or other insulating material from eachother and fromthe copper plate 32. An insulating binding post 33 connects with one endof the heating element while the other end is grounded at 34 to the bodyof the carbureter. 'llhis grounded end at 34 will connect with thegrounded contact 22 of the thermostat through the body of th'ecarbureter, or' by suitable wire connection shown diagrammatically at34a inFig. 1. A suit-able Wire connection 35 connects 4with contact 23of the thermostat, while a suitable' wire connection 36 connects withbinding post 33. Any sucient source of electrical currentl may beutilized, to which wires 35 and 36 are connected.

The liquid fuel chamber is provided with a pivoted float. which controlsliquid fuel inlet valve 41. This valve may be arranged in any of themanners common to the art, the liquid fuel inlet being at 42 .and therebeing provided a well 43 below the Valve opening top for catching anysediment which might yotherwise pass into the carbureter. e

rlhe carburetor may be supplied with fuel, and being cold, as soonas theelectrical current `is supplied to wires 35 and 36, the heating elementsstart to increase the'temperature of the fuel and of the-carburetergenerally. A's soon as the fuel has bt ,i heated to a sufficienttemperature to va orize and forthe heat being thus distributedthroughout the chamber, the thermostatic arrangement 16 becomes heatedand will open the circuit between contacts 22 and 23. This immediatelystops the action of the heating element until the temperature 'fallssumciently7 to cause the closing of the circuit between the contacts 22and 23. In this manner the temperature of thecarbureter is kept fairlyconstant at a point wl1ere `the liquid fuel will freely vaporize. rlfhevapor arising from the liquid fueljs carried and mixed passing throughinlet 13 and their stai-ling an engine wlien'the temperature is.

s. lfVc may use. fuels. ofextremely heavy na` turcs` with this, our.improved device forthe reason that `it is only neccssaryto heat such ifuel' to said chamber, outlet means for vavfuel-s to'asuilicicnttemperature to produce vaporizalion. Hcretofore, gasolene and similarlike products have only been used in carbureU-frs for the reason theyalone would freely vaporize at ordinary temperatures. But fren suchlight fuels have been found to vaporlze with dilliculty when first low:and our device is notonly useful for utilization of heavy fuel oils; butit is useful in initially heating'a carburetor. for starting with thelighter fuels, the current being turned olf from the carburetor as soonas it is warmed up and started.

In Fia. 2 we have shown a modified form of the t'liermostatic deviceillustrating this form as typical of the departures we may make from thespecific form shown in Fig. 1. ln the` 'form shown in Fig. 2 there is anarmature 60 pivoted at 61 and pulled in the direction indicated by thearrow by a spring 25a. Contact 22a is carried by the armature and thecontact '23a is adjustable to engage with the contact 22a. A suitablemagnet 2 attracts the armature to open the circuit between contacts 22and 23. And this magnet is wound with wir'e`63 of suchmaterial aschanges its resistance greatly upon the change in temperature. As thetemperature rises, the resistance of the wire 63 increases and the'magnetic traction due to the current flowing in the wire alsodecreases. The spring 25a can be arranged in its amount of tension topull the armature away from the magnet at any suitable temperature, andto close the circuit between contacts 22*L and 23a.

In Fig. l We have shown a small safet valve which may be used if desireThis valve will allow escape of vaporswhich may be generated from highlyvolatile fuels, such as gasolene, when the engine has been suddenlylstopped and the carbureter is still warm. In heavier fuels, such askerosene, for which this device Yis particularly designed, there lmay beno use `for this Valve. Our carburetcr is of particularly great utilityfor kerosene.

Having described our invention, we claim: 1.- A carbureter, comprising achamber for containing liquid fuel, a heat conduct-ing bottom for saidchamber, an electrical heating element immediately beneath the 'heatconducting bottom,a oat controlled valve for maintaining al constantamount of liquid fuel in the lower part of the chamber, a thermostatchamber situated ventirely within the liquid fuel chamber above theliquid levelv therein, a thermostatin the chamber, and a switch operatedby the -thermostat. and eleotrically connected with the electricalheating element to control the supply of currentthereto.

2. A carbureter, comprisinga liquid fuel chamber, an electric heatingelement in proximity thereto, means for introducing liquid poi-s fromthe liquid fuel, a thermostat" within said chamber, and a switchoperated by thc- 'thermostat and'electrically connected to the heatingelement to control 'supply of current-.thereto A. carburetor, comprisinga liquid fuel.

chamber, means for passing air through the chamber over thel fueltherein, a heat conl ducting bottom for the chamber, an electric we havehereunto subscribed our'narnes this heating element. below the hxatconltuctirxlg 2nd day of December 1912. v bottom, a `thermostat c am rwit in t e "l fuel chamber, a thermostat therein, an electric switchoperated by the thermostat, and l n' an electrical circuit including theheating Witnesses: element and the switch in series. iELwooD H.BARKELEW,

En witness vthat we' claim the foregoing JAMES .TBARKELEW

